The End Of The Long Road
by Nightw2
Summary: Scrooge and Goldie's wedding day. Set seven years after the end of the DuckTales series


Note: This short story takes place about seven years after the time-frame of the "Duck Tales" series and four years after the time-frame of the "Darkwing Duck" series (since I envision the "Darkwing Duck" series as being no more than three years from the time frame of the "Duck Tales" series) and has various references to the characters of both series. Since all the characters mentioned in this story are copyrighted by Disney, I naturally have no profit motive.  
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Pacing around a small room, Scrooge McDuck looked more nervous now than he did in his entire life. "Excuse us, Uncle Scrooge" one of three seventeen-year-old male ducks said as he carefully opened the door.  
  
"Ha, Dewey. Good to see you, laddie. Do you have the ring?" Scrooge asked the young duck.  
  
"Yes. It's in the same pocket as it was the last time you asked me that; one minute ago." Dewey answered.  
  
Grinning sheepishly, Scrooge replied "Aye. Sorry, laddie. It's just that my nerves are totally shot. I don't know why."  
  
"I do. You're getting married in an hour. Even though you've known the woman most of your adult life, you're still having jitters about it. After all, your relationship has survived so much it's uncanny; a well-over half-century seperation, countless fights, a couple of ...errr detours and every other obstacle the world has been able to throw at you. You never suspected it would ever get to this stage, but here you are." Dewey said matter-of-factly  
  
Dewey was right. Scrooge's relationship with Goldie O'Glit; soon to be Goldie O'Glit-McDuck; had been an extremely difficult one to work out, yet it seemed like it, indeed, would work out. Throughout all the time they've known each other, the obstacles the two's relationship had survived (most notably Scrooge's own self-admitted stubbornness and occasionally roving eye [the latter of which he did eventually get over]) had made the fact they were finally getting married seem all the more miraculous. This, in turn, made Scrooge more than a little pleasantly surprised, yet all the more nervous. So nervous, in fact, that he almost leapt out of his skin upon the sound of the next voice:  
  
"Hey, Mister McD, just came by to wish you well. I can't believe ol' Goldie finally managed to snag you."  
  
"Launchpad?! Don't tell me things were actually quiet enough in Saint Canard for that egomaniac to actually give you permission to attend my wedding."  
  
"Not really that quiet. It's just that DW knows I used to work for you and respected my desire to visit old friends, knowing I'd be back in a day or two.".  
  
"I'm glad you could come, Launchpad. Believe or not, I've missed you over the last five years."  
  
"So how are things over on your end?"  
  
"Hectic, but not as bad as they used to be. The Beagle Boys finally gave up trying to rob my money bin. Thanks to the alimony Flintheart Glomgold has to fork over for coming out on the losing end of three failed marriages, he's too busy just trying to keep from going broke to give me any real trouble anymore. As for Magica, well, if what Gizmoduck tells me is true, I'd wager you've been getting more familar with her over the past year than I have, though she still occasionally finds time to give me trouble, usually with the help of the rest of the Insidious Eight."  
  
"Yeah, Mister McD. Ever since Taurus Bulba took over the Fearsome Five from Negaduck and recruited her, along with Splatter Phoniex and Camille the Chamelon, to expand the group to the Insidious Eight, Magica's been giving the Justice Ducks plenty of trouble."  
  
"Aye. Seems she's gotten it into her head that she now has to eliminate the Justice Ducks before she can ever again have a real shot at my ol' number one. Lucky for you the local sorceress in Saint Canard is actually on your side. Well, I'd better be going. I have to await Goldie at the end of the aisle."  
  
"See you from the guest seats, Mister McD."  
  
After Launchpad left with a good-natured wave, Scrooge signalled for Huey, Dewey and Louie to assume their places. By luck of the drawing of straws, Dewey got the part of best man, while Huey ended up getting the head usher job and Louie got the job of wedding photographer. Donald got unavoidably detained by Navy business, so he wasn't available to take the best man role like he was when Scrooge made one of the biggest mistakes of his life; falling for and almost marrying.... that money-hungry banshee... since Scrooge still couldn't bring himself to call her by name, even in his thoughts.   
  
Thankfully, Goldie stopped that (and eventually forgave him for almost marrying somebody else [it took quite a while, but she eventually did]). "This time, the only mistake was not marrying this one A LOT sooner." Scrooge mused happily as he thought back to eight months before this day, when he had finally worked up the nerve to propose to Goldie and visited her over where he had last saw her.   
  
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Armed with nothing more than his determination and a long-stemmed rose, around the base of which was a gorgeous gold ring with a large diamond on it, Scrooge knocked on Goldie's door, carefully placed the rose and ring in her hands, gave a heart-felt proposal and an equally heart-felt apology for waiting so long to propose.  
  
After 30 seconds of careful thought "Ohh, Scroogie. Of course, I'll marry you, you crazy old coot." Goldie said with tears of joy in her eyes as Scrooge gently slid the engagment ring onto her right-index finger   
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As he scanned the seated guests, he noticed, not only the aforementioned Launchpad, but also good ol' loyal Duckworth, Mrs. Beakly, Webbigail, Gyro, Bubba (who, thanks to some super-brain-food cooked up by the aforementioned Gyro, was a lot smarter than he was when he first came to this era [and thankfully, not as cold and arrogant as he was the first time he became super-smart]) and, well, basically everybody Scrooge knew in Duckburg, all garbed in their best attire (though Launchpad and Fenton both had to leave before the wedding started to help take care of a just-cropped-up Justice Ducks emergency [Fenton discreetly sneaking off to change into Gizmoduck and Launchpad summoning the Thunderquack by remote control]).  
  
Finally, Goldie started coming down the aisle. "Aye, that gal has aged very gracefully and that wedding gown looks absolutely stunning on her." Scrooge thought with a lovesick sigh. Indeed, Scrooge wanted so much for this wedding to go perfectly that he, for perhaps the first time in his life, spared absolutely no expense. He hired top notch security, purchased the very best rings he could find, and even sprang for round-trip Concorde tickets and a three-week honeymoon in Monte Carlo.  
  
Well, long story short (I know; too late), the preacher went through the traditional speech and, after one "I do" each from Scrooge and Goldie and the exchanging of rings, Goldie was finally Mrs. Goldie O'Glit-McDuck.  
  
Well, I don't think I need to (or should) go into any further detail if you catch my meaning, so I'll end the story here.  
  
The End  
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Note: For those of you who are going to get on my case about Donald still being in the Navy in this story, I really should have mentioned earlier that I've basically considered "Quack Pack" to be basically an alternate reality-based series anyway (after all, human beings and talking ducks shared the same world in the "Quack Pack" series when they didn't in the "Duck Tales" series). I simply had Donald re-enlist after his original Navy term expired and after seeing how much Huey, Dewey and Louie had grown to enjoy living with their Uncle Scrooge [he simply didn't have the heart to ask his Uncle Scrooge to return custody of the nephews to him]). Anyway, as aforementioned, every character mentioned in this story is copyrighted by Disney, so I wrote this purely for entertainment purposes. 


End file.
